Mt. Everest Deaths

Watch out for the dead bodies on your way up to the summit of Mt. Everest. At least you won't have to hold your nose, but there is a good probability you will observe the unfortunate few who didn't make it, having collapsed and died on either the ascent or descent and left to freeze against a frozen snowbank. So far this year, eleven people have died attempting the climb to the summit of Mt. Everest and some experts are blaming the high death toll on inexperienced and unfit climbers who should not have been given a license to attempt the climb. This situation is expected to worsen in the future.

Nepal-based expedition guide Norbu Sherpa says that  'too many people are flocking to the popular destination without the proper fitness level or experience to make the ascent and descent.'  Because of the altitude, climbers have only a small window of time to get to the top of the mountain before making their descent out of the 'death zone.'  The line-up at the final leg of the climb is where most of the deaths occur, the chance of survival lessening as climbers risk pulmonary edema due to the high altitude.

Think of being in a queue with 200 people waiting to summit in front of you, many of whom are unskilled, thereby slowing the traffic, creating a logjam. On Everest, there is only one rope tow to hang on to at final ascent and no room to elbow knuckleheads out of the way.  "You can imagine if somebody is getting really, really, really slow and the one behind has to wait," said Andrea Sherpa-Zimmermann, who is co-founder of Wild Yak Expeditions and married to Sherpa. 'Those with inexperience are generating problems for others, jamming up the climb.' 

You are as strong as your weakest link and there are too many weak links hanging on to the rope tow at the top of Mt. Everest to make any trip up there worth it.  Read this harrowing tale of one expert climber's observations.

body at the summit of Mt. Everest

 

Michael Jackson - Neverland Stories

When Michael Jackson was charged with seven counts of child sexual abuse, many may have felt that he was guilty. In the court of public opinion, a worn-out phrase that fit, he lost. The little black kid from Indiana who bleached himself snow white, had been on the world stage since he was five years old dancing and jiving with his brothers, and was now accused of sexual abuse of a child. Those not blinded by his success, nor bribed by money, could see that the Mike Jackson Show was unraveling, holes were punching through the fabric and accusations were being laid. The coup d'etat? The disastrous documentary Michael made with the scaly Martin Bashir of the BBC.    

Who didn't ponder Michael's suspicious relations with children? It all happened in 1993. I was out drinking beer with friends when I heard he had been charged for molestation and battery. I knew it! I said. Months earlier I had read about Michael and his diapered monkey Bubbles, the monkey with the reddened, hollowed-out rectum that Michael had carried with him everywhere and slept with.Who does that? 

I believe the statements of Wade Robson and James Safechuck, the boys that Michael Jackson befriended, groomed and abused for years; it took a lot of nerve for them to sit down and tell their story. Who's responsible for their sexual abuse? The parents who were gobsmacked and overwhelmed by the money and fame of Jackson? The kids? Letting Michael Jackson, a middle-aged, wealthy boy man, come to your ramshackle suburban house and sleep in the same bed with your son for weeks on end is, in the end, the responsibility of the parents. 

Michael Jackson is dead and he declared his innocence before death. He just loved children, that's it. Sadly, left to pack the weight of this shameful story are his three children.